philba

Actually, I think that declining production will hurt them a lot sooner. Any company that thinks of itself as an Oil Company instead of an energy company is doomed. History is replete with failures due to short term thinking (railroads vs transportation).

Anyway, if they aren't searching out new sources of energy, they are going away soon. Instead of killing people, they would be courting them with high priced salaries, stock options, fancy labs, ...

It is a fantasy to think that some little guy will figure out what heavily funded scientists and engineers with deep expertise haven't.

Broz

I looked at the website that you linked. If it is true that more energy is going in to heating the water than electrical energy being pumped in, then one is left wondering if there is some chemical reaction that is occuring that is not reversible (reversible meaning with no energy loss). My guess would be the additives to water to make it more conductive. Frequently in these websites they claim the additive is a catalyst. This is not true because the additive is consumed by the reaction, and a true catalyst is not consumed by the reaction. Also, it looks as if the electrodes themselves are being consumed. This means that some chemical reaction is taking place between the electrodes and the products of the electrolysis. If this is the case then one would have to consider the energy requirements for producing the electrodes in these experiments, and also the energy required to produce the "catalyst".

In every case that I have seen of such claims of efficiency greater than 100% there is always some energy that has been snuck in to the system that has not been accounted for that would make the overall calculations show less than 100% efficiency, as it should be according to the laws of thermodynamics.

So, show me in forms of chemical equations that the "catalyst" used and the electrodes used are not contributing to the excess energy somehow in an irreversible chemical reaction and you might make it an appealing science project. I'm not holding my breath though.

Hero999

Broz,
I agree with what you're saying, the energy has to come from somewhere which makes perfect common sense. The energy in the reaction on the website probably does come from either the electrodes or the 'catalyst'.

The only issue I do have is that the reversibility of a reaction has nothing to do which it. The reaction that occurs when you burn hydrogen is completely reversible by electrolysis (as I'm sure you're aware). I think what you mean by reversibility in this case is that for a chemical to be acting as a catalyst should not be consumed, if it's involved in a chemical reaction that converts it from one form to another the reverse should be happening simultaneously, at exactly the same rate.

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firewater

I'am doing more research on phase locked loops after your post Francois, It's very interesting,Here is a excellent link explaining it for others that are interested.

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/gadgets/pll/pll.html